Herbs NOT to Use; Make Your Herbal Cheat Sheet
What herbs are safe?
Which herbs are safe for you to take? Which herbs are not safe to take? How do you know which herbs to avoid?
These are personal questions and the answers will be different for each person. Really, the answers will be different for you at different points in your life. Acute and chronic health issues, along with medications, can greatly affect whether or not an herb will work well for you at a particular time.
I am building a collection of lists of herbs to avoid for certain issues, including the posts below, but following my suggestions for building your own list will probably benefit you the most.
An overall approach to using herbs safely
My strong suggestion is to learn about any health issues you or your family have very thoroughly. Ask questions and research any conditions for yourself. Then work slowly, learning what could improve or alleviate symptoms and causes. After you have a general category (ie what will help with circulation) then look closely at different herbs or natural supplements individually to determine which would work best.
A big part of knowing what to do is knowing what not to do. And a large part of being confident and capable while using a specific herb is knowing when it is the wrong choice for your specific need. If you are very well educated about any health issues you are dealing with, you will also understand what makes them worse in addition to what will help. Learn the general categories of what you should avoid (ie additional anticoagulants if you are on blood thinners etc) then keep track of individual herbs that fit these categories.
Keep reading to learn about my system I put together to remember which herbs should be used for which purpose. Also remember to download my Contraindications Worksheet at the bottom of the post.
What is a contraindication?
Knowing what herbs not to take is important. So before jumping into the big intimidating world of herbs I want to talk about contraindications. What is a contraindication you ask? MedicineNet defines it as “A condition which makes a particular treatment or procedure potentially inadvisable.”
It would be awesome if I provided a list of every herb & every contraindication, side effect, or possible drug interaction for each one, but 1. I have yet to find anything even close to this 2. It would be overwhelming and 3. I am going to encourage you to do something that will be even more helpful because it will be designed just for you.
This is called the herbal homeschool after all, and if there is anything homeschoolers like, it is empowering others to learn and make connections independently. I want you to take a few minutes to begin your herbal contraindication cheat sheet. I included a photo of what I designed below & have also included the full link at the bottom of this paragraph.
How to remember which herbs are safe
The goal will be a handy, nicely organized list with multiple, thorough pages that includes any medical condition you have, any medications you are taking, and any supplements you are taking, along with herbs you research that are contraindicated for each one. Make a page for each one that you can slowly work towards filling out. Some may not be applicable all the time, but will be nice to have on hand. For example, I can have one page for pregnancy, note that I am taking extra vitamin B, then record herbs that I find are unsafe for pregnancy. That’s a LOT of information to have all in one place, and it does not need to be finished in a day, a month, or even a year. The goal is to have a place to store the information you collect so it is all in one spot. That spot should not be your brain, because they seem to lose useful information at key times when you need it! Rather, your herbal contraindication sheets should be in your herbal notebook. So just make a section for each person, write down their medical issues and medications, and every time you research a new herb, add it to the list for any person that it is contraindicated for. Start slowly and add herbs gradually. Obviously, just don’t take anything until you have researched it thoroughly!
Tips for remembering how to use herbs you research
To begin . . . Check out my Contraindications Worksheet
1. Print the worksheet, or grab a sheet of paper, your herb research notebook, a new note on your phone, or a fresh document on your computer. Remember to leave plenty of space to write as you make your initial list.
2. List each of your health problems or concerns, on separate pages. Include things like anxiety, tendency toward depression, seasonal allergies, etc. Consider which plants/ fruits & veggies you are allergic too because there is a chance you could have a negative reaction to an herb in the same family. Also, don’t forget to add a page for pregnancy and breastfeeding if that is a possibility! When we are not preventing pregnancy, I choose which herbs I take as if I am always pregnant, even if I know confidently that I am not. This eliminates any concerns of accidentally using something that could cause birth defects or miscarriage super early in the pregnancy.
3. List every medication you are taking along with your go-to over the counter medicines like asprin, benadryl, etc.
4. List which supplements you are taking already, and what dosage you take. Include herbs if you begin taking them daily for maintenance.
5. Research to your heart’s content! You may want to just note the herb, or you may want to add a note about why you should avoid it. Personally, I add a note about why because otherwise I would forget the reason. Also, I am skeptical by nature and would be questioning my previous notes if they did not include an explanation about which herbs to avoid. As you research individual herbs, I would also not the contraindications in those notes so you have all applicable information about that herb in one place.
I have just begun this and it is already extremely helpful. For example, before I began researching which essential oils I wanted to begin my collection with, I quickly looked up which oils to avoid for pregnancy and my few health issues. Then, as I looked at different blends, I could easily compare the ingredients to my list and eliminate the ones that would be harmful to me before I got too excited about them.
This would be an excellent thing to do for each person in your family who may be affected by your herb use, especially if you are diffusing oils. Enjoy learning and growing as you consider which herbs NOT to use so you can more confidently utilize the herbs that will offer the greatest health benefits.
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